[Hygiene and health importance of histamine as an unhealthy factor in several food products].

Epidemiologic reports on food-borne diseases from different countries show not infrequently outbreaks due to histamine toxicity. The Authors were interested in assessing the relative importance of this nosological entity in Italy and made a global review of old and recent literature on the subject referring also their earliest data on a recently performed laboratory work. Several foods can show histamine contents potentially toxic for man; amongst the most frequently incriminated products fish, especially the scombroid species (tuna, mackerel), plays a pre-eminent role in the etiology of the so called scombrotoxic fish poisoning. This syndrome begins from a few minutes to two hours from incriminated meals and presents itself with the characteristic signs and symptoms of histamine activity on various organs and is very rarely, if ever, life threatening. Histamine formation in food is due to the decarboxylase activity of some microorganisms, mainly enterobacteria; they can be part of its normal flora or represent a secondary contamination and find a favourable environment for outgrowth if food is not stored or processed in proper conditions. An international outlook on the epidemiology of this syndrome is then given, including some considerations on the real dimension of the problem in Italy, at present widely underestimated. Though a pioneer work was accomplished by Pergola, who started his researches in 1910 after receiving several reports of food poisoning related to consumption of tuna and finally established the causative role of histamine, we are lacking at present an up to date picture of this problem in our country, notwithstanding a few sporadic notifications. Two of the most relevant ones concern a survey in Rome on a collection of 110 cases observed in the seventies and an outbreak occurred in Palermo in 1979 affecting nearly 250 people. The relationship between the intake of histamine and the clinical effects on man of a given dose are then evaluated together with histamine catabolic pathways in the gut, where possible interference by enhancing substances may occur. Finally a brief review of the analytical methods currently employed gives the Authors the possibility to refer about their first data of a survey on the hygienic quality of scombroid species commercialized in their metropolitan area.